Baseline Stack

This is my go-to stack for overall health, hormonal support, energy, and mood. Alongside a relatively clean, anti-inflammatory diet and decent strength and conditioning regimen, this stack can do wonders.

A lot of people are needlessly worried about draconian consistency with supplement intake. Will I get any benefit if I don’t take it every day? This is one of those few times in life where consistency is not necessarily a good thing. While there are some notable exceptions, generally I don’t worry too much about it. In fact, for many supplements like caffeine, melatonin, and pro hormones, varying intake over time is actually ideal. I try to incorporate this particular stack into my weekday routine, and could care less on weekends and holidays. When I’ve finished off a bottle, often I’ll give it a few weeks or a month before ordering more.

I’ll be writing full posts for most of the supplements listed here and adding links, so if you want to know more about any of them, let me know.

Liver might just be the most potent singular supplement out there. The benefits are unrivaled – liver is chockfull of quality protein, vitamin A, folic acid, B vitamins, bioavailable iron, trace metals, and CoQ10. There’s a reason bodybuilders have been using it for decades.

One of the most interesting aspects is liver’s as yet unidentified anti-fatigue factor:

Liver’s as-yet-unidentified anti-fatigue factor makes it a favorite with athletes and bodybuilders. The factor was described by Benjamin K. Ershoff, PhD, in a July 1951 article published in the Proceedings for the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine.

Ershoff divided laboratory rats into three groups. The first ate a basic diet, fortified with 11 vitamins. The second ate the same diet, along with an additional supply of vitamin B complex. The third ate the original diet, but instead of vitamin B complex received 10 percent of rations as powdered liver.

A 1975 article published in Prevention magazine described the experiment as follows: “After several weeks, the animals were placed one by one into a drum of cold water from which they could not climb out. They literally were forced to sink or swim. Rats in the first group swam for an average 13.3 minutes before giving up. The second group, which had the added fortifications of B vitamins, swam for an average of 13.4 minutes. Of the last group of rats, the ones receiving liver, three swam for 63, 83 and 87 minutes. The other nine rats in this group were still swimming vigorously at the end of two hours when the test was terminated. Something in the liver had prevented them from becoming exhausted. To this day scientists have not been able to pin a label on this anti-fatigue factor.”Weston A. Price Foundation

Ideally, grass-fed liver is prepared and eaten as a whole food, but for most people the taste can be off-putting or a busy lifestyle can get in the way. I take a full serving of grass-fed undefatted desiccated liver pills daily.

It’s estimated that roughly 40% of Americans are deficient in magnesium, which is a cofactor in over 300 biochemical pathways in the human body. It’s also key in recovery from strength and conditioning workouts, and can even contribute to muscular power. There are many forms of magnesium supplements, and many of these are not easily metabolized. The most common form found in supplements, like magnesium oxide, are effectively useless. My two preferred methods of supplementation are transdermal magnesium oil and oral magnesium glycinate.

Magnesium chloride is readily ingested through the skin (transdermally), which is why I prefer making my own magnesium “oil” and spraying it on my chest or abdomen after workouts. 1 cup of magnesium chloride flakes mixed with 1 cup of hot water until dissolved and poured into a cheap glass spray bottle is my go-to approach. You can also just buy the premade oil, but it’s expensive. The mixture has a greasy feel to it, which is why it’s often called magnesium oil despite only salt and water being present.

The second, easier method is just to take magnesium glycinate orally. It’s less effective than the transdermal oil, but better than magnesium oxide and many others by a long shot. Dosages range between 400mg and 1000mg daily.

The benefits of eating gelatin are too numerous to list in this short snippet. Traditional diets founded on nose-to-tail eating were very high in gelatin, which is broken-down collagen tissue. Especially if your diet is meat-heavy, which itself is high in methionine, gelatin supplementation is key because it balances out methionine and decreases homocysteine in the blood (a significant risk factor for disease).

Others with gut problems can see great benefits with gelatin for intestinal and mucosal lining of the stomach, and enhancing stomach acid secretion. Still other benefits include promoting health in skin conditions and aging, joint inflammation, poor sleep, and mood irregularities.

There are many great brands out there, but personally I use Vital Proteins – a great company I highly endorse. They make both Beef and Marine Gelatin, which gels like typical gelatin products, and Collagen Peptides, which is collagen further broken down into its component amino acids and doesn’t gel so it can be mixed into cold or hot water.

The science of gut bacteria and their roles in human health and wellness is still in its infancy, but early research is very promising. It’s estimated that the average person has around 100 trillion microbes colonizing their gut (weighing in around 3 pounds), so it’s no surprise they have such an immense impact on our health. Western diets are now incredibly low in live microbes, which may contribute to a host of modern diseases. Especially those with gut, skin, or mood problems should consider investigating supplementation with probiotics.

There are two kinds of probiotics I try to intake regularly: soil-based organisms (SBOs) and lactic acid organisms (LAOs), both of which behave very differently. Most probiotic products like yogurt and kefir only contain LAOs, and while they are great, they don’t colonize deep into the gut like SBOs. SBOs can be had with high-quality sauerkraut and kimchi products. I try to supplement with a few tablespoons of both kinds every couple of days.

Vitamin D3 plays a critical role in over 1,000 biochemical pathways in the body, and is incredibly important for all kinds of positive gene expression. Rhonda Patrick estimates over 70% of Americans are deficient in Vitamin D. Our bodies actually synthesize vitamin D directly from UV B rays, i.e. sunlight, though for those in climates with little sunlight or long days in the office, oral supplementation works great.

I try to get as much sunlight as reasonable, but during the colder months, I take 4,000 IU vitamin D3 gel capsules.